Quote:
Originally Posted by paulckennedy
I was speaking more to concept in the ePub specification than in actual usage. I would expect the designers of the eReaders to format the ads which are included specifically for their reader.
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What about ebook readers that aren't associated with a bookstore? They aren't interested in ad support for the books. Hardware designers that aren't tied to a content provider have no reason to modify their software to show ads well. The two most likely results are:
1) Those ebook readers become more desirable because they drop the ads, or show limited versions of them, OR
2) They become non-functional with ad-laden ebooks, which cause frozen screens or other errors.
Neither of these options is good for the future of ebooks, because #1 means publishers (or whoever's making money off the ads) doesn't want their books read on those devices, and #2 means customers can't use ebooks they bought on some devices.
And no ad system is going to work equally well on an Astak reader, an iRex, a 21" desktop monitor, a 10" netbook, an iPod, a Blackberry, and an iPad. All these can read ePub files (I think BB's can read epub?), but not all are going to deal with ads the same way--unless those ads are basic text blocks.
Advertisers want to reach *all* readers of the book, not only those who read on desktops; they're not going to pay (as much) to put their ads in books that will be read in ways that strip out half the content of the ad.